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I’d need to wait until the early hours of the evening to finish my journey and sneak in under the cover of darkness. At the pace I’d been going, the town should be just about two hours away. Maybe a little longer since I’d need to go slowly, hiding from any other patrols.
I’d learned my lesson with the Wind-Bloods after all. They’d caught me off guard, still half-dazed from my time in Hell, but I’d been lucky.
I didn’t count on that luck holding.
I climbed a nearby tree with thick branches. There was no way I could risk sleeping on the forest floor. The inherent risk of the tree was that I would move and fall in my sleep, but it was the lesser of two evils, so that’s what I picked.
I rested my eyes before sleeping, putting together my plan. The Moon-Ghost cells, I’d recognized, even though I’d never been in them myself. The Alpha, Maddox King, kept them under his house. Actually, I think the cells predated the house. I’d never heard of them being used. After all, Moon-Ghost didn’t hesitate to kill intruders. We’d been taught about the cells in school, and Jett King had bragged about seeing them and how any wolf who tried to harm the pack would rot down there.
The teachers hadn’t corrected him.
I’d never heard of anyone invading us, though. I assumed they were just remnants of a different time. The three packs had a somewhat easy truce, each keeping to their own territory.
I’d asked my mother—one of the rare times she’d been home and sober—about them. That had ended her sobriety for the evening, as she’d popped the first of many beers immediately after asking. No pleading would stop her or allow me to recant my question. She told me stories of horrible tortures Maddox would do to those he placed in those cells. She did so in enough excruciating detail I hadn’t slept soundly for an entire week.
I rarely thought of my mother. Mainly because I suspected she rarely thought of me. She hadn’t even come to the Choosing, which should’ve been one of her momentous nights as a parent. It was hard to tell if part of why I was targeted was because my mother would rather get plastered than defend her pup or if I was such a failure that I drove her to drink more.
Maybe she was relieved when I’d died. We’d been strangers inhabiting the same house at different hours for years by the time I was twenty. I was a consequence of one of many indiscretions. My father, I was sure, was just as ashamed. Whoever he was, he’d never claimed me.
Enough. Focus on Daphne.I didn’t know why Daphne was in the cells, but it didn’t matter. What mattered was that I needed to get to her. Unfortunately, the only surefire way I knew would be to go through the King’s house.
If this had been a full moon night, it’d be easy. Just wait until everyone was out of the house on a pack run. Sneaking in while the Kings were sleeping was a hair less dangerous than strolling through in broad daylight.
I wished I had the books from Cole’s library. Maybe one of them would hold an answer, offer some plants I could use like I had with Cole. I knew there were plants, but finding them and preparing them just the right way would be impossible without the guidebook.
There was no sense ruminating on it, though. The best thing I could do was get a few hours of rest, allowing my body to heal what the magic hadn’t quite managed, and be ready to rescue Daphne.
So I slept.
And this time, I dreamed.
I was on a small island, if it could even be called that. The whole thing was maybe twenty feet in diameter. Water surrounded me on all sides, with no other land as far as the eye could see. The sky burned a brilliant red, revealing the truth of my location.
Being in Hell had made my dreams screwy, but sleeping on Earth was like all those dreams I’d had through adolescence. The scene was familiar. In the past, the settings had varied wildly, but now, I realized all of them were parts of Hell.
“Show yourself,” I demanded. Cole must’ve been around, and I wasn’t going to act scared of him.
Even if I might have a very good reason to. A pissed-off Cole was a dangerous thing. And I suspected it was much worse than that.
“I know you’re out there, Cole,” I said when only silence greeted me. “Face me, dammit!”
“Looking for me, little wolf?”
I spun to face the source of the noise and nearly slammed into Cole. He’d suddenly appeared right behind me. His hands snapped to my wrists, catching me as I stumbled off balance.
I should’ve shaken off his grip, but for a moment, all I could do was stare. It had been a matter of days, yet it felt like an eternity since I’d seen him.
His hair was a wild mess of dark curls, nearly covering his eyes, though they did nothing to soften the demanding amber glow that held me in place. He wore one of his more favored outfits, a silk dress shirt that was only half-buttoned, revealing the hint of hair on his chest that was eye level for me, the edges of his mysterious tattoo exposed.
I drank the sight in, yet there was something different about him.
Or maybe I’d never properly seen him.
You heard Hecate call me the King.His parting words from another dream before I entered the capital rang through. There’d been hints, things Hecate let slip, the castle, the dungeon, all of which I’d ignored until it was impossible.
“Who are you, Cole?” I asked. I meant the question to be a demand, but it came out as barely more than a whisper.
“The better question, little wolf, is who are you?”
